Animalarium is researched, co-choreographed and performed by Lena Kimming (UK/SE), Alexandra Wingate (SE) and Liv Schellander (AT) as a collective. They started their long-term artistic collaboration and friendship during their dance studies in London.
Their work explores the intersections of performance, embodiment, and ecological urgency. It delves into collective and individual responses to global challenges like climate change, interconnectedness, and our shared existence with other beings, aiming to create transformative live art experiences. Rooted in physical and performative experimentation and long-term collaboration, their performances invite audiences into multisensory, non-human-centric perspectives that challenge conventional narratives.
Liv Schellander is an artist working in the fields of performing arts. She is a dancer/performer, choreographer, Somatic Experiencing (SE) practitioner and process facilitator. She loves to collaborate with artists in different constellations and to engage in long-term processes. In 2019 she started to produce her own works. Besides the work created within the Animalarium collective in 2022 she premiered her first solo work HYPERNURTURES at brut Vienna, as well as VOLUME in 2019, her collaboration with Sara Lanner and Jasmin Hoffer. Since 2022 she has been touring with SOILED by Michael Turinsky and collaborates with him on his new solo Work Body (2025). In 2023 she co-created with Fia/Sophia Neises and team With Or Without You, a dance performance that invites into spaces of Access Intimacy. In 2019 she worked with Doris Uhlich on the choreographic implementation of HABITAT/Halle E in Tanzquartier Wien, and with Manuel Pelmuș in Tricks for Tips at Steirischer Herbst Festival.
Liv Schellander studied at London Laban Conservatory (BA Dance Theatre) and at the Institute of Dance Arts in Linz (MA Choreography). She is originally from Carinthia, Austria and is based in Vienna. From 2018 – 2021 she curated and headed Training & Workshops at Tanzquartier Wien – Center for Contemporary Choreography and Performance. She has trained to become a certified Somatic Experiencing (SE)® practitioner from 2021- 2024. Recently she has become increasingly engaged in exploring multisensory art making and aesthetics of access in the field of performing arts. In March 2024 she participated in the The Art of Access conference at brut Wien. Since 2023 Liv has been developing her practice of (collective) “Choreo-Constellating”, which is artistically researched and implemented in various projects. www.livschellander.com
Alexandra Wingate is a choreographer, dancer, producer, dramaturg and process facilitator. Based on the Swedish northwest coast she often works in Göteborg, Bergslagen and Norwegian Sápmi. As a choreographer she works with performance for stage, dance film, performance installation and participatory performance. Improvisation and score building are the main techniques for developing and performing her work as well as a strong focus on co-authorship with the dancers.
Besides the work she has done within the context of the Animalarium Dance Collective Alexandra has current collaborations with choreographer Elle Sofe Sara as a dramaturg for her and Hlin Hjalmarsdottir new production Láhppon for the Norwegian Ballet. And as a choreographer for Citna Báffa a performance that is a part of visual artist Máret Ánne Sara new exhibition Háhtešeatni doali dádjadit premiering at Arctic Arts Festival in Harstad, Norway.
She also works as a producer, method developer and process facilitator for interdisciplinary processes as a part of Ställbergs gruva and for Dáiddadállu Sámi Artist Network.
Alexandra received her BA Dance Theatre and MA Choreography from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. www.wingatealexandra.com
Lena Kimming is a dancer / performer, choreographer and physiotherapist from Sweden based in London. Lena is a multifaceted creative collaborator who is experienced in participatory dance / theatre and live art. She enjoys building and creating improvisational scores with an anchor in somatic principles. She is also curious and participates in a multitude of methods of creating and sharing dance and art. She has as well as performance work been engaged as dance teacher, regional project developer, rehearsal assistant and workshop facilitator.
In addition to her long term collaboration with Alexandra Wingate and Liv Schellander she works among others with with Lundahl & Seitl (SE), Alexandra Wingate (SE), Ina Dokmo (SE), Majula Drammeh (SE), J Neve Harrington (UK) Previous performer work include Swedish Poste Restante (2008-2016) and Lenas adaptation of The Runner choreographed by Deborah Hay (US) as part of the Solo Performance Commissioning Project 2007.
Lena has a Master in Creative Practice and a BA Dance Theatre from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and Independent Dance, London. She also holds a BSc in Physiotherapy from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. She is recipient of The Marion North Award for outstanding achievement in performance.
COLLABORATORS
Ina Dokmo – Choreographer, performer, dancer, teacher, curator and Shiatsu therapist. Performer in Constellation #1 Dawn obliges us to dream. Outside eye and feedback for Shows for Shows and Shows for Extinction.
Cha Blasco – Artist, music composer and producer, live electronics performer.
Music composition for Shows for Shows and Shows for Extinction.
Eric Sjögren – Director, sound and light design, project manager of Ställbergs gruva.
Light design and dramaturgical support for Shows for Shows and Shows for Extinction.
Peter Widell – Stage technician, carpenter and a part of Ställberg mine.
Technical production and light design for Shows for Shows.
Josefina Björk – Artist, director and a part of Ställberg mine.
Josefina was a part of the first research residency that became Animalarium.
3:e Våningen – presenter.
3:e Våningen is an artist-run arena for contemporary dance, art and music in Gothenburg. 3:e Våningen has presented several of Animalarims works most notably this is where Animalarium premiered Constellation #1 Dawn obliges us to dream in 2024 and Shows for Shows in 2021.
Ställbergs mine – collaborator, residency and presenter.
The association behind Ställberg’s mine conducts artistic, cultural, and social activities whose starting point is the mine with unlimited surroundings. In concrete terms, the work finds many expressions. The public program includes walks, lectures, concerts, storytelling evenings, exhibitions, joint meals, documentary theatre and festivals. Ställberg mine is the lead parter in Animalariums Perform Europe project in 2025.
Elle Sofe Company – collaborator.
Elle Sofe Company expands on the groundbreaking work of indigenous choreographer, director and film-maker Elle Sofe Sara. A full-time artist since 2007, Sara founded the company in 2022 to make the work—her own and her collaborating partners’—accessible to the wider world. We strive to be innovative, kindhearted and unifying. The company draws strongly from Sámi culture, which is indigenous to the Northern parts of nations now known as Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Russia’s Murmansk Oblast. A culture born of a fierce climate of ice, the animal world, and quiet intimacy. Elle Sofe Company reaches beyond borders to encounter and co-create with a diversity of people, cultures and lifestyles. Elle Sofe Company is partner in Animalariums Perform Europe project in 2025.
WUK Performing Arts – co-producer and presenter.
WUK performing arts realizes interdisciplinary projects, productions and formats that oscillate between performance, visual arts, music, dance, theater, choreography, digital, text, sound and video. In the form of co-productions, collaborations, guest performances or formats created especially for WUK performing arts, it offers artists from the field of performance art time, space, publicity and support for the development and realization of their projects. WUK performing arts is located in Vienna, Austria and is partner in Animalariums Perform Europe project in 2025.
Animalarium 